The US Appeals Court has denied a request from a MegaUpload user to intervene on his behalf and help him get his files back. Kyle Goodwin, a sports videographer, has spent years in attempts to get his non-infringing files back, which remain under lock and key.

It’s been more than 5 years since MegaUpload’s shutdown, in result of which millions of users lost access to their personal files. One of them is Kyle Goodwin, who operates a sports video company in Ohio and stored large videos he created himself on MegaUpload. A few months after the raid he asked the court to help him get his personal property back, but unsuccessfully: the District Court still hasn’t issued an order to allow former MegaUpload users to retrieve their data. Many users filed requests assisted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), but also unsuccessfully.

Kyle Goodwin went as far as to urge the Appeals Court to intervene, claiming that the US Government’s apparent disregard for the rights of former site users hurt innocent bystanders. The EFF even hoped that it would break through the 5-year log-jam, but the Appeals Court denied the request, saying that it did not find on the record that the District Court has refused to adjudicate the matter – even despite the fact that Goodwin’s motion has been pending for too long without decision.

Although the Appeals Court can intervene in cases where a District Court refuses to make a decision, it decided not to do this in Goodwin’s case. In other words, the stalemate continues, even after 5 years, and MegaUpload users’ data remains out of reach, with disappearing hope to be reunited with their files. One of the reasons is that the hard drives which contain those files become unreadable at their storage sites because of gathering dust for such a long time.

Nevertheless, Kyle Goodwin and the EFF are not giving up, saying that they are going to continue their efforts to return the files to the rightful owners. The EFF issued a statement telling about their disappointment with the Appeals Court’s refusal to step in to take the case forward. The foundation promised to continue asking the district court to act on MegaUpload users’ requests.